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Reports of Reprisals in Afghanistan

Ethnic tensions simmer after fall of Pashtun-dominated Taliban

Thursday, May 9, 2002
By Borzou Daragahi
MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR



Borzou Daragahi is on assignment in Afghanistan

At the Hesari-Shahee refugee camp outside of Jalalabad, an ethnic Pashtun father and daughter seek refuge from reprisals against them by Tajiks in northern Afghanistan.
Image Credit: Chris Hondras -- Getty Images.

“[Ismail] Khan doesn’t need [Hamid] Karzai, and that’s a real problem for Kabul,” said a leading intellectual in Herat.

GHAL-E-GHAZI, Afghanistan -- MSNBC
On April 3, at about 4 p.m., soldiers came to this village in western Afghanistan looking for Salem-Ahmed. They took him to a holding cell in the middle of nearby Herat and accused the Pashtun sheep trader of being a Taliban collaborator. They demanded 100 lakhs, the Afghan equivalent of about $300. When Salem-Ahmed told the soldiers he didn’t have the money, they tied him down and beat his feet with cables all night.

“THEY BEAT BOTH my feet until the morning,” said the 38-year-old father of four. “I lost consciousness.”

Surrounded by fellow villagers and lying on the floor of his rented home, Salem-Ahmed slowly unwrapped the fabric covering his feet revealing two swollen masses. His left foot was a bloody pulp.

According to Human Rights Watch, beating of the feet can cause severe damage by killing muscle tissue. It can also cause disability and chronic pain.

Salem-Ahmed said he was unable to stand, much less work, since the beating. “They said I was a Talib,” he said. “I said, ‘I’m not.’”

* ANTI-PASHTUN REPRISALS
* DANGERS OF NATIONALISM
* LIVING IN FEAR
(More: MSNBC.com News Source)
2002 © MSNBC.

Dan